El Pisco

ORIGINS:
The first vineyards in the Viceroyalty of Peru were planted in the fertile coastal valleys of Peru shortly after the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors. The Marquis Francisco de Caravantes was the first to import grapes, bringing them from the Canary Islands in 1553. Even though Spain imposed many restrictions on wine production and commerce, the wine-making industry developed rapidly, mainly in the Corregimiento of Ica in Peru.
In the late 1530s, the Spanish began to plant and harvest grapes for wine in the southern regions of what is now Peru. Grapes were selected for their quality to produce wine of what today would be called "export quality", while those that did not measure up were discarded or given to the farmers to do as they please. It is in this context that small groups began to use these grapes to distill a brandy-like liquor from the discarded grapes, using similar techniques to those of Chicha production.
The oldest written historical record of grape brandy production in the Spanish colonies date back to Peru 1613. It is the will of a resident of Ica named Pedro Manuel the Greek. In it he itemizes his worldly goods, including 30 containers of grape brandy, one barrel of the same spirit, a large copper pot and all of the utensils needed to produce pisco.
This was considered a lesser beverage by the Spanish and not consumed by them unless they were poor or simply curious. However, one vineyard owner decided to designate an area of his lands exclusively to this brandy (which did not yet have a name, although it is reported the Spanish called it "firewater").
The drink began to acquire consumers in the sailors that transported products between the colonies and Spain, who began to call it pisco, naming it after the port where it could be bought. The drink then became a favorite of sailors and workers who visited the port of Pisco, exalting it for its strong taste and ability to quickly affect the consumer. As trade from Peru to the world grew, so did the popularity of pisco, until it almost equaled wine in quantity as an export.
In 1641, wine imports from Peru into Spain were banned, severely damaging the wine industry in the colony; only a few vineyards that had parallel wine and pisco operations survived this change. Those that did began to concentrate on pisco production, nearly eliminating wine production in Peru.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, pisco was a mainstay on ocean-crossing vessels, drunk mostly by sailors, as crew usually drank whisky or other "finer" spirits. The main reasons for its heyday were the low price and high a vailability. This position was maintained by pisco until the onset of rum, which won over consumers with lower prices and a softer flavor.
Pisco was also briefly popular in San Francisco and nearby areas of California during the Gold Rush in the 19th century, where it was introduced by Peruvian miners.
ETYMOLOGY:
The origins of the word pisco can be traced to the Quechua language where the birds that inhabited the valleys of the Ica region were called pisqu (or any of: pisco, pisku, phishgo, pichiu, pisccu depending on the orthography).
The valley that was later to be named Pisco was settled by people who, during the Inca Empire were to become known as piskos. One of the main products they provided were the containers used to store beverages. These containers were also known as piskos. The first grape brandy to be produced was stored in piskos, and as time went by, the beverage came to be known by the name given to its container.